Caged
by moriartysfallenangels
Summary: Peggy wakes up and finds herself in the grasp of a very unfriendly, familiar foe.
1. Wake Up and Smell the Roses

I was hardly able to remember my name. My mother, a woman whose face was clouded in my mind, told me to count when I was scared.

 _1..._

I woke up on a cement floor in a body that was not my own. Same brown hair and same scars on my kneecaps. But everything about me was wrong. I had bulked up but I didn't remember how. My body had a strength that it never had before. There was now only muscle.

 _2..._

I frantically moved and discovered my arms and legs were each tied together and to another person who wasn't responding. I was able to slightly move my arms but I couldn't free them. The room smelled like dust and dirt with a faint metallic smell. The iron smell was becoming more and more obvious after I noticed it. It almost smelled like...

 _3..._

Start with the basics. My name was Margaret. Peggy... Carter. I am 25 years old. I am from... I am from...

 _4..._

I don't know anything else. My mind was completely blank. I had a mother but I couldn't remember much, only small useless facts. I had a father but he was farther away in my mind than my mother was. _What happened to me?_

 _5..._

I calmed my breathing. In. Out. In. Out. I needed to listen to my surroundings so I could figure out where I was. _Focus…_ A voice pounded in my head. It was an unfamiliar instinct to listen to it; I focused anyways.

The person behind me-to whom I was tied to-began to subtly wiggle their fingers and wrists like they were waking up. I tried to deduce further on who was behind me. Their body was leaning against mine and, assuming by width, it was most likely a girl.

I finally calmed my breathing and tried to make shapes out of the darkness. I was able to make out two plain concrete brick walls and a smooth plastered wall. The other wall seemed reflective. _A mirror maybe?_ The plastered wall had a small door with a barred window. This was a lot of precaution for someone who wasn't going to even be able to stand up.

The person tied behind me began to stiffen and fully awaken. Their head banged against mine and that was when I felt the hair, they were most likely a girl.

"What the hell?" She moaned with an American accent. That then made me remember another fact: I wasn't born in America.

"Wait," I replied to her, with a completely different voice. She tried to get out of the bindings we shared and only ended up working her hand between mine in an awkward position. "Angie, is that you?"

"What are we doing here, Peg?" She gave up on working her hands free and she tilted her head so she could hear me better and possibly to see me.

"I don't know. I can't remember anything." I looked back and saw mid-length brown hair, like mine.

"Me neither." This was too much to take in at one time.

I began to formulate theories as to why I was there, when a blinding light turned on. I could make out the room clearly. It looked shabbier in the light than in the dark. In the dark, it just looked like a regular cell because you couldn't see the details. Now that the light flooded the room, I was able to see it for it really was. It was a cage meant for observation. The reflective wall was a ceiling to floor mirror. It probably had viewers on the other side. The two of us were being watched.

I struggled against my bonds again. I still don't know why I'm here. A buzzer went off and we both flinched; it rang too loud in my ears. I could hear voices arguing on the other side of the door but they were muffled and barely audible. I slowly sat up using every muscle and appendage available to me and leaned against the girl behind me, who followed my lead and did the same. The soft voices were coming closer and beginning to become clearer, but they were still not discernable.

I gathered myself so that my face would seem as if I didn't care. I was actually quite terrified but I couldn't show that.

Two men wearing sleeveless shirts and dark jeans walked in accompanying a nicely dressed man, who was obviously their leader. He stopped directly in front of me with the two men standing to his sides. They glared at me and he kept a calm, collected face. I kept my face bored and collected, almost like his but not quite.

I wonder if he is afraid of me or the girl I'm tied to. He wouldn't have brought men with him if he weren't. Either he's afraid of my power or the girl behind me. Possibly both.

"Why do you think you're here?" He asked this condescendingly.

"How the hell should I know?" I asked this with a smirk on my face. I had to act like I had the upper hand. This would anger the man and make him lose his cool. I could tell he was one of those people that this process would work on.

"Cocky. Not surprising. Agent Carter and her world renowned sarcasm." _No, I'm just pretending, you idiot._ The girl behind me was obviously bored. I could tell from the very loud sound that came from her mouth

"Just tell us why we are here," she grumbled.

"How could I forget you? The most important person to Agent Carter. You and Princess Sarcasm here, are the best Christmas present I could have asked for. You, Angie Martinelli, will be very helpful with making Miss Carter comply." Half of his mouth twitched into what he probably thought was a menacing smile. He then walked out and the men behind him followed. The two of us were left with a lot of questions.

"Was it just me," I asked her, "or did it seem like we had met him before?"

"Yeah. I don't know about you, but that guy creeps the bejeezus out of me."


	2. More Than Meets the Eye

_Agent Carter. The way he said it sounded so familiar._

She adjusted herself against my back making it a bit more comfortable for both of us now that he was gone.

"How are we going to get out of here?" Angie was surprisingly calm; she wasn't shocked at all. She acted like this happened on a normal basis. I was scared out of my skull but I did my best not to show it.

"Well assuming that what is tied around our wrists is rope, we might be able to cut ourselves out of these bindings." We both began to struggle against the rope. "You wouldn't happen to have a knife, would you?" She responded to my question by placing a cold metal object against the palm of my hand.

"I'm guessing they didn't check my sleeves when they locked me in here," she was starting to understand the gravity of the situation. I could hear it in her voice. I didn't blame her.

I positioned the knife in my hand so that I wouldn't cut either of us when it opened, and then I flicked the switch. The knife made a click that caused her to slightly flinch. It wouldn't be noticeable to most people, since she had obviously gone to a great length to conceal it, but I still caught it. Her silent terror hurt me to the core.

I dismissed this unwanted information and began cutting at the rope around our wrists. I worked for around **ten minutes** on those ropes, cutting myself twice. I would get her out of here. Then we were finally free. We both stood up and began rubbing our wrists from the burns we received from trying to wiggle our arms out of the ropes. We turned around and saw each other face to face for the first time.

"Hello, English," she said with hope in her eyes.

"Hello," I replied with a smile to mask my fears. "Let's get out of here." We then proceeded towards the door, which was unsurprisingly locked.

"Well that was anticlimactic," she said half joking and half with a twinge of sadness. I had already began to formulate a plan when I cut the ropes. "What now?"

"Your knife has multiple uses," I answered with a smirk. I then jammed it in the lock and wiggle it around until I heard a slight click. "Fantastic."

"Wow, English," she whispered to me, astonished. I slowly began to crack the door open and peek to see if there were guards outside our cell. "Impressive."

Outside of our cell, there was a single guard with a gun loaded with bullets. The man keeping guard didn't have any spare rounds so there must've been a full round in the gun already. I gestured to Angie to stand back just in case I wasn't successful and I had to fight him off. She stepped back a few feet and gave me a reassuring look. I didn't need reassurance even though he was twice my size. I snuck up behind the man, covered his mouth, and finished the job. I pulled him into the cell and pried the gun out of his warm hands. I walked towards Angie holding his gun in my right hand and she proceeded to take my left hand.

"Come on, let's go," I said to her. We cautiously strolled out of the cell and looked both ways before deciding to turn to the right, down the darker hallway that would make it harder for us to be seen. We immediately regretted our choice when we heard voices come in our direction. We hurried to the intersection where we could go in another direction and turned right. We came to a door, that when tried, was unfortunately locked. Angie's hand began to slightly tremble.

"What now?" She asked, with her voice slightly cracking.

"Currently working on it." I let go of her hand and held the gun in both hands, ready to strike. The men were very close and if we tried to make a run for it across the intersection, we would surely get caught or killed. I wasn't sure which would occur; I still didn't totally understand the situation. I gently pushed Angie against the tiled wall and waited for the men to pass. As they approached, I realized a major flaw I had made. They were coming down the hallway and would have a perfect view of us no matter what direction they decided to travel.

We were perfectly and utterly screwed.


	3. An Arm and a Leg

The men's voices grew closer and closer and their direction was becoming more and more obvious.

"Uh, Peggy," she whispered. "I think they're coming from straight ahead."

"Oh really, Angie?" I slightly snapped at her and instantly regretted it. "Sorry, I get snippy in tight situations."

"No harm taken, English," she said, slightly shaky.

I prepared myself for the worst and bravely strolled my way up to the intersection of the hallways, prepared to take the worst from these men. Their footsteps came closer and closer and when they were in view I fired two warning shots above their heads that ricocheted against the walls and cast off a small light show of sparks. I mainly gave them the warning shots because I wasn't able to aim very well, but I wanted a good fight. They immediately took cover, but they surprisingly didn't shoot at me. I heard Angie yell something from behind me but the next thing I knew, I was on the ground.

"Bloody Nora," I grumbled, thrashing against the two men that held me down.

"Fabulous, Ms. Carter," the strange man from earlier made a reappearance. "You did exactly as I predicted you would."

"What?" I groggily said due to the hard blow I had just received. Two men came out from the locked door and seized Angie.

"Haven't you figured it out yet?" He slightly smirked and then squatted next to me, a bit out of my reach if I were to escape. This small gesture gave away the large fact that he was intimidated by me. It was all I needed.

"What? That you're stupendously mad?" That slightly stirred him up a bit. He quickly regained his composure, however, and remembered he had the upper hand.

"You will comply, Ms. Carter, and we're going to begin now," he stood up and looked down at me, obviously feeling a bit accomplished for some reason. He pulled a gun out from his black overcoat and held it at his waist.

"What happens if I don't cooperate? You'll kill me? How terrifying." My sarcasm was making even nervous Angie crack up.

"No, Ms. Carter," he white knuckled his gun, frustrated by my comment. "We'll kill her, but I feel that your theory and my actual threat are one and the same thing."

I could actually feel the color gently, yet suddenly flood from my face. He pointed the gun at her temple for effect but I doubted he would kill her there and then. She was the only leverage he currently had. He would use her until there was absolutely no use for keeping her alive. She slightly flinched when he raised his arm. Killing Angie would be the most terrible thing he could do to me and he knew it. I already blamed myself for the death of one great person, I couldn't bear it to have two.

"What do I have to do?" I looked at him hard right in the eyes. I didn't take Angie's life lightly. He slowly dropped the gun from her head, but the fear never left her eyes.

"Cooperate," he was gaining confidence, confidence I couldn't afford to give him but I didn't have a choice. From then on, I would devote my captivity to keeping her alive. "All you have to do is give us information and then go through our experimental programs and we will let her walk free when you're-"

"Dead?" I interjected because I knew where this would end up. I wouldn't get out unless I was rescued. There was a rare, helpless feeling that ran through my veins.

"Yes," I couldn't tell what he was hiding but I knew it couldn't end up well whether I survived or not. "Essentially, yes."

"But Angie will walk free?"

"Peggy, no don't do this," Angie gently said to me and I looked over to her, just a slight glance but just seeing her broken set my decision.

"I'll do it," I answered, slightly defeated. After all, I was great at stalling. I was determined that the SSR would come and get me quickly and I had a plan to make sure I wouldn't give away important and possibly detrimental information about the SSR and what they had acquired over the years. My final decision upset and angered Angie. I couldn't read her face and that's what I liked about her. Out of all the readable and predictable men and women, there was her. When I thought I had her figured out, she surprised me and made me question her again.

"Alright then," the man's confidence was outrageous. "Let's begin."


	4. Beating Around the Bush

" _Peggy," the man attempted to be warm and welcoming to her but wasn't succeeding in his attempt._

" _I can't go on any further," she simply stated, holding back all of herself. She had for so long held back her rage, tears, and pain. She could feel the trembles she contained to her very core._

" _Yes, you can. We need to know this and you need to get this off your chest."_

" _No," she shakily whispered and a simple tear slipped down her cheek. They were lucky she was tied down._

" _Steve would be very proud of you." Yes he would, and she loved Steve, but he was being condescending in his manner. She wouldn't lead him to believe that she was just another woman, because she wasn't. Peggy knew that she was different; she had been changed. How she had changed, she couldn't see from her point of view. From the outside, she could only begin to imagine how cold she must seem._

" _I don't need his approval or anyone else's!" Peggy began to lose her temper. She thrashed against the restraints they had strapped onto her arms. Apparently, she had hurt several agents that were "trying to help her". She certainly didn't give a damn and she certainly didn't need their help. They were the reason she had been there in the first place._

" _Of course you don't." The man began to agree with her to get her to talk. Typical technique. She wouldn't comply to anyone else._

" _Don't use that bloody tactic on me." She calmed herself a bit._

" _Fine, fine. Do what you want, we'll get information out of you later. You are here under our protection, you're not a prisoner." He stood up, sorted his papers, and began to leave._

" _Wait." She loudly sighed for effect. She couldn't believe she was giving in to him, but she guessed he was right. She needed to share her pain and get it off her chest. He came back in and sat down, assuming her move. "I will finish this, but on one condition."_

" _Alright," he agreed. "What is that condition?"_

" _I went through a lot to save Angie. You cannot judge me for the terrible things I did. I did them for her, but I do not regret them one bit."_

" _Why did you go through so much just for one woman?"_

" _You're finally asking the right questions." Peggy slightly smirked._

" _Well?"_

" _You're terribly thick. Or do you just want me to say it?"_

* * *

Angie and I were forcibly led down the hallway opposite to the one we had escaped from. The walls were different and the technology was better than the other side of the, well, whatever we're trapped in. It worried me where we were. No normal prison "tested" on their captives, unless they were Hydra, which worried me more. I would never let Angie end up like so many that perished in Hydra testing that were led by men like Whitehall. He would test and remove until he was satisfied, and by then, there wouldn't be much left.

"Here we are," one of the men said. We had arrived at a cell with doors that were connected to some sort of security system that I didn't have the chance to observe. The door opened and the two of us were shoved inside, then it shut. I expected Angie to not expect the push and trip, but she caught herself and remained standing.

"Well this will be nice place to die," Angie half-joked and stated darkly. She was still kind of shaky.

"Angie-"

"No, English. It won't be alright." Angie had lost the slight laugh that she always had in her eyes, she was beginning to lose hope.

"Well, then we can't stop trying, can we?"

"We already tried once and you see how that worked out," she pointed at the bruise that I could feel forming on my cheek from the men tackling me to the ground. I looked away from her. "I think the amazing Peggy Carter should know when she's beat."

"So what, Angie?" Peggy gently asserted. "What are we supposed to do? Just lie here and rot until some man comes and saves us? We are fully capable of breaking ourselves out."

"Why are we even here? Everything before waking up in the other cell is fuzzy." Angie was stubborn and knew she was wrong, but wasn't going to admit it. I wasn't going to rub it in her face so I let her side step the topic.

"The man seems familiar but I can't quite place his face." Every time I saw his face, something inside of me curled up in a strange, unexplainable rage. I couldn't explain why, something was wrong if I couldn't remember. "Wasn't it odd that he said 'comply'?"

"That's not a word you hear completely sane people say to someone," Angie said. "But then again, I think he lost his sane card when he locked us in a freaking cell."


	5. Penny for Your Thoughts

A/N: Okay... this is way overdue. I had lost my way with this story, completely forgetting my direction but then with Agent Carter getting cancelled, all the Cartinelli feels just came flooding back. SO, buckle up, enjoy the ride, because I have direction again.

Enjoy!

* * *

Three days. That's how long I sat waiting, longing for something to do, alongside Angie. Boredom was our only visitor in those long hours, and my only entertainment was listening to her recount moments from her childhood. We really got to know each other with her sharing the experience of living in a very strict, bilingual, Catholic home. Her father was from Italy, obviously speaking fluent Italian, and had met her mother while studying abroad. After dating on and off for around three years, they finally decided to get married and chose to stay in America.

I shared my past down to a depth no one in my current life had reached. She was now the only one alive who had heard me recount the story completely of how I came to America, including the death of my brother. No one in the SSR knew that I had ever had any family. They never asked, I never gave and I appreciated that. I find that I don't typically want to bond with people who treat me like I'm incompetent simply because of my gender. But, Angie… Angie was different in the fact that she wasn't a man. It was nice to talk to another woman like I did with her in that dark, drab cell. There was Rose, back at the SSR, but she had her circle of friends and I had my isolation.

I also learned something sitting there in the consistent dark for hours on end. I learned that there were humans beings out there in the world that understood endless suffering and loss, just like I had. For so long, so long, I felt as if I wore the heaviest weight; that no one understood what it was like to constantly lose the ones you love. But Angie knew. She had lost almost as much as I had. She had lost a lover years ago.

Veronica, was her name. She was slightly nervous to admit that, I could see her thoughts in her mind. She feared my judgement, my disgust. Angie didn't know how I felt about her. Something inside me was almost happy that it was another woman, a sort of thrill ran down my spine that maybe, just maybe my dreams would come true. It was selfish to think of myself while she recounted the story, spilling her heart out in front of me, but I found everything about her to be absolutely stunning. Her bittersweet smile when she recounted the good memories with Veronica warmed me to my very core. A particular memory had stuck with her, of a visit to the fair. They rode the ferris wheel at night, and for once they felt safe at the top of the world where no one could see them, no one could find them. The fair was where they had first kissed. In the darkness, she thought she hid her tear from me, but as I saw it slide slowly down her cheek my heart ached for the girl. And that was when I knew. Looking at her, I knew I had fallen. It was like looking at the sunset after not seeing light for weeks. She was overwhelming and I was… I wasn't worthy.

I had done some terrible things in the war, things the dead even feared to whisper. She deserved someone that could be her light in the world, like Veronica had been. Inside of me, there was just a lot of darkness and self-loathing that she didn't deserve to put up with.

On the night of the third day, when Angie was asleep, I heard commotion outside of the door. I had already memorized the guard rotations in the past few days, and the shift switch was typically the only sound we ever heard. But, that was usually two men replacing two previous guards every three hours. Which wouldn't be at this time, when a switch had just happened 30 minutes before. Reaching over the foot between us, I gently shook Angie awake, and to her credit, she stayed silent. There was a scraping against the door and some conversation between the guards that I couldn't quite make out, but I knew it meant trouble for us.

"Peg?" Angie whispered nervously.

"I'm not going to let us get separated, don't worry," I replied. I grabbed her hand, and it was ice compared to my always warm hands. She laced her fingers in mine, a small, but touching gesture. We stood together hand in hand, ready for whatever was to come. The door burst open, revealing the same, familiar man with two lackeys trailing him on either side, taking positions on either side of the door. He moved towards us, a simple glance down at our entwined hands with no reaction, and stopped a few feet away, jamming his hands in his pocket. In that moment, I noticed for the first time a scar starting on his collarbone that snaked down and disappeared beneath his shirt. A few smaller scars also freckled every visible inch of his skin, as well.

"Ms. Carter," he stated. The hand laced in mine began to slightly tremble. "We need Ms. Martinelli for a moment. I know you're probably going to fight me on this, because it's _what you do,_ but it's time to face the facts. And stop fighting this."

"I don't even really know what I'm fighting," I replied, slight anxiety flushing through me. It was true, I hadn't the foggiest on what the whole situation was about. I had thought about it during all of the sleepless hours of the past few days, but I just couldn't come to a conclusion. Something super confidential that the government probably had knowledge of, but chose to keep a secret because they were unable to keep it under control. I had a instinctual feeling it was bad, and that was my reason to fight. Also, Angie didn't deserve this maltreatment; she was just a waitress that happened to cross paths with a somewhat well-known government agent.

"Then why fight? I don't want to hurt you, actually. We just need you to cooperate, then you and Ms. Martinelli are free to go."

"Cooperate? You haven't even asked anything of me yet."

"We need some… information from you." Lying. The hesitation said it all. "Just give us what we want and we won't harm you."

"Why involve her?" I gestured towards Angie. "And also, why can I not remember my capture?"

He began to pace and responded, "She wasn't originally part of the plan. Ms. Martinelli here just happened to find herself in the wrong place, at the wrong time."

Angie snorted. "Typical."

"Now for your memory, that was for precaution," the man said.

"Precaution?"

"You saw the face of one of our men."

"So? I see your men now."

"You knew him, we couldn't risk you escaping and exposing him as a traitor to the SSR." A traitor in the SSR… that would explain so much. It explains why some of the cases lately that I took with targets that should have been easily tracked and caught always ended with a strange dead end. They had been warned, which narrows the pool of traitors. I'd have to piece that together later.

"Alright. Why do you need information from me when you already have a mole in the SSR?"

He paused, caught in his lie. I have to admit, he did have a strong poker face. He brushed it off as if it were nothing.

"Our mole did not have a personal relationship with Steve Rogers, better known as Captain America," he said with a smirk. Next to me, Angie's head whipped to look at me in shock, her hand still in mine. Not many had known for sure about Steve and I, but most had assumed, especially after that horrible radio show. But this man, he was sure of it. His mole must be thorough. Or, he was reporting to someone higher up who knew this information first-hand. Another thing to think over at a later time.

I laughed, an attempt to hide any fact that I might be nervous of what they might do to seize the information they wanted. My heart pounded hard in my ears, deafening in that silent room. "What more could I give you that his files could not?"

"You were there. Not many are still around that witnessed his transformation. We'd prefer to get our hands on Howard Stark for the information, but with your display a few days ago, we decided to hit two birds with one stone, in a sense."

"Meaning?" I asked tentatively.

"We're going to make you into an even better soldier."


End file.
